Nike

Nike History:

Brand Nike also known as Blue Ribbon Sports was founded by track athlete Phil Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman on Jan 1964. Initially started as distributor for Japanese shoe maker Onitsuka Tiger.

The company's profits grew quickly, and later their relationship with Onitsuka Tiger neared to an end. BRS than launched its own footwear. The first shoe to carry this design was a soccer/football cleat named "Nike," which was released in the summer of 1971.

In February 1972, BRS introduced its first line of Nike shoes, with the name Nike derived from the Greek goddess of victory. In 1978, BRS, Inc. officially renamed itself to Nike, Inc. Beginning with Ilie Nastase, the first professional athlete to sign with BRS/Nike, the sponsorship of athletes became a key marketing tool for the rapidly growing company.

By 1980, Nike had 50% market share in the United States athletic shoe market, and the company went public in December of that year. Nike's first national television commercials came in October of 1982 during the broadcast of the New York Marathon. The famous slogan "Just Do It" was coined by the agency co-founder Dan Wieden.

Nike Manufacturing:

With more than 500 locations all around the world and offices in 45 different countries, its spread almost like a spider's web for its crazy fans. Most of the factories are located in Asia.

Rivalry:
Its quite obvious that a company with such a huge fans can have rivals too. Though after surpassing Adidas in 1970's they had no direct competitors because there was no other brand of its kind, until Reebok cam along in the 1980's. But things changed and Reebok was purchased by Adidas. Nike's next competitor is Puma-the third largest in the race.

Nike Products:

Nike sells products like shoes and apparel for sports such as Tennis, Football, athletics, Cricket, American Football, Golf, Hockey and so on... Nike also supply urban fashion clothing. Nike in association with Apple Inc. has recently launched a product which monitors the performance of a runner via a radio device in the shoe which connects to the iPod nano, the information is actually displayed on the iPod i.e, the distance covered, the calories burnt and much more.

Marketing Strategy:

Nike has probably the best marketing skills and which reveals that it is one of the important components of company's sky touching success. It promotes by sponsorship agreements with top notch celebrity athletes, professional teams and many...

Nike sells in approximately 140 countries in the world. Has its own nike.com domain that allows customers to design shoes, thus directly delivering them to your house from manufacturer.

Promotion:
Brand Nike has a large base of celebrity athletes and professional teams who endorse their products and genuinely attract the customers or may be their own fans?

Tennis Players - Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova.

Football Players - Ronaldinho, Criastiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Robinho.

Golf Players - Tiger Woods

Cyclist - Lance Armstrong

Formula One - Felipe Massa, Michael Schumacher

Nike is currently the official kit sponsor for the Indian Cricket Team.

These are the Celebrity players and teams, besides these there are many more... and still to come.

Nike also uses the Internet as its secondary promotional medium or tool. It has several websites for individual sports which includes nikebasketball.com, nikefootball.com, and nikegolf.com.

And genuinely its the most seen brand everywhere you go. The brand power of nike is almost eternal until someone amongst one of us decides to take over them(perhaps a small joke).

If you plan to buy Nike products online, than just visit this official website http://www.nike.com/ -their online Store.